Abstract EN:

This research analyses the situation of female aristocrats in the Byzantine Empire of the 12th/15th centuries from a particular perspective : that of wealthy women who chose to enter the monastery. Their decision to do so was not as unusual as it might appear, since monastic life was open to all, regardless of age or social origin. The study of these nuns’ life conditions shows that the inferior status of women in the secular Byzantine world also extended into monastic life. Furthermore, the analysis of the aristocrats’ motives for choosing such a life reveals the interests that might have led them to make this choice in the first place. Besides spiritual aspirations, economical or even political motivations played their part. Denied the right to manage their own wealth while their spouses remained alive and deprived of their voice in the outside world, at least in theory, it was in the monastery that they could find ways to express themselves and act. It was as if seclusion gave rise to a form of freedom.